


Inner Light

by KarboniteManeuver



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M, Past Relationship(s), Reflection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:26:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22697077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KarboniteManeuver/pseuds/KarboniteManeuver
Summary: Things could’ve been simple-- they always were with Hashirama.
Relationships: Senju Hashirama/Uchiha Madara
Comments: 1
Kudos: 18





	Inner Light

Things could’ve been simple-- they always were with Hashirama. Even as swords met, blade biting into blade, it wasn’t with animosity, merely forlorn disappointment, an edge of wistfulness that despite best intentions, brought with it the crest of memory, tucked away like a sun-bleached photograph-- their limbs tangled, bodies warm with the heavy humid night air and each other at the peak of the season. It had been just as easy as breathing, how Hashirama had reached out, spurring something new within the charred vestiges of hope that had hung heavy in Madara’s chest-- they were children of war, and yet, despite losses on both sides… Long fingers had curled into thick, dark hair, with the kind of verdant humility with which Hashirama gave his attention to all things-- coaxing even the most unwilling seedling into bloom. 

Perhaps it was as simple as that, that Madara was just another project-- their time a cultivation towards something greater-- Konoha, or maybe it was just a way for the Senju to flex his skills. 

It was a weak argument and he knew it. The shared breaths, nights of the body of his once childhood friend arching back into him, pressing tight as he’d keened around the spit slick fingers in his mouth, surrender of both body and soul. The mornings he’d woken, patchd from battle, to Hashirama sitting by his bedside, dozing and still upright-- the slightest movement stirring fluttering lashes and a warm smile back to life, that he’d been able to help one he’d so cherished. 

It is regret instead though that binds him, watching over Obito’s sleeping form as the Zetsu intermingle, threading through flesh, muscle and sinew to mend the body of the boy, just as Hashirama had done for him so many times decades earlier… As though somehow, cells and a perfect dream of an imperfect world is enough to hold candle to the memory of two boys-- naive to the world at large and to the true nature of man. A world where the simple, tangible act of wading ankle deep to find the perfect skipping stone, or the low rise and fall of the pale chest of the most beautiful man he has ever met curves to him, peacefully seeped in dreams of a better world is enough.


End file.
